Oregon State Police to move Roseburg office to Douglas County building

JOHN SOWELL/The News-Review
Douglas County plans to spend about $1.2 million refurbishing and expanding its former Parks Department office in Winchester for use as the Roseburg field office for the Oregon State Police. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2014 and the building ready for use in early 2015.

JOHN SOWELL/The News-Review
Douglas County plans to spend about $1.2 million refurbishing and expanding its former Parks Department office in Winchester for use as the Roseburg field office for the Oregon State Police. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2014 and the building ready for use in early 2015.

JOHN SOWELL/The News-Review
Douglas County plans to spend about $1.2 million refurbishing and expanding its former Parks Department office in Winchester for use as the Roseburg field office for the Oregon State Police. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2014 and the building ready for use in early 2015.

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Douglas County will be the Oregon State Police’s landlord in Roseburg by early 2015, according to a deal between the county and state.

The OSP has agreed to move its Roseburg field office to a county-owned building formerly used by the parks department on Old Highway 99 North in Winchester.

Following a $1.2 million remodel and expansion, the county will lease the building to OSP. County officials estimate they will recoup the investment in 10 years.

“It’s good for the state because we get a good facility and a good landlord,” said OSP Lt. Doug Ladd, commander of the Roseburg office. “And the county gets a good tenant and a good investment.”

Troopers have been stationed at 761 N.E. Garden Valley Blvd., across the street from Coastal Farm & Ranch, for 40 years.

“It has served us well, but it was never designed as a police station,” Ladd said.

The 3,700-square-foot building lacks a room for meetings and a room to interview suspects. Five evidence lockers are scattered throughout the building rather than in one location, Ladd said.

The county building, four miles to the north, will have 7,500 square feet and will fully meet the agency’s needs, Ladd said.

Plus, the building is next to Interstate 5, making reaching the freeway easier, he said.

“The troopers can be trapped by trains or by heavy traffic on Garden Valley,” Ladd said. “This will provide easier access to the freeway and Highway 42.”

Douglas County commissioners last week approved a contract with Roseburg architect Paul Bentley to redesign and expand the parks building to suit OSP.

The 2,200-square-foot building was vacated nearly two years ago when the parks department moved to the ground floor of the Justice Center at the Douglas County Courthouse in space that was once a parking garage for judges.

“It’s really a win-win for both the county and the state police,” the county’s building facilities director, Gary Groth, said. “It’s a perfect location for them and in the long run, we’ll be making money.”

Remodeling plans will be drawn up over the next several months, and construction bids are expected to come in early next year, Groth said. It’s expected construction will begin the following summer, he said.

The parks department occupied the building, located between a county public works storage yard and a Douglas County Fire District No. 2 station, from 1969 and June 2011.

The county has hired the former county parks and facilities manager, Jim Dowd, who retired at the end of March 2012, to coordinate the remodeling project.